Mirror, Mirror

(Design nerd alert… you’ve been warned.)

I think starburst mirrors are just de-lovely.

I was interested in their background, and did a little Googling (I cringe… I have the design books in the barn, but really it is just so much easier to type in some key words and get an answer… as soon as that built-in is done, it will be filled up).

I’ve always thought the classic starburst in gold looked rather Louis XIV, but apparently it is much more recent. This article says that while the convex mirrors date at least back to the Venetian Republic, starbursts are straight outta Hollywood Regency (1940s).

The convex mirror, I learned in this article, actually met its end thanks to Louis XIV. In the 18th century, French glassmakers figured out how to press plate glass into large flat mirrors; the grandest example of this new technique is the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

Before that breakthrough in mirrors, almost all mirrors were blown by hand. I remember Professor Curran lecturing on Jan van Eyck’s use of the convex mirror as a perspective tool in Arnolfini Wedding (1434) in Art History 101. Apparently, it is also the first known image of a convex mirror.  And what do you know, it’s a (late Medieval) starburst.

The convex mirror was popular also in the Neo-Classical period in the early 19th century. Oftentimes, it was accompanied by eagles and surrounded by little spheres. Some of the fine homes of Salem seafaring merchants no doubt had this version.  The museum I work at also has a couple beauties.

But back to the starburst surrounding the (sometimes) convex mirror. Apparently, after initial popularity in the 1940s, the now-antique versions went up for bid at high-end auction houses in the early 2000s.  The starbursts sold like gangbusters and as is so often the case, mainstream retailers took notice and began producing them (a trickle-down phenom that a delightfully vicious Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada explains here).

Like all popular designs, you get different riffs on them.

Here’s the one I’ve been dying over at Crate & Barrel:

Love the use of the driftwood. Classic, but with a seaside spin. I added it to our registry, just in case someone was looking to gift us with that certain je ne sais quoi statement piece, and also because we personally couldn't justify the $200 price tag (that's a Home Depot lumber run!).

But today, as I was innocently Christmas and birthday gift shopping for others, I went to the store I should not go to unsupervised and found this beauty. (Urban Elements on Washington Street in Salem, Massachusetts should really start paying me for the plugs I give them… or at least a store credit here or there!  See what I did there?)

I love that it is salvaged wood. I love that unlike the C&B version, it has a convex mirror.  And I love that the distressing just happens to be in blue and grey (our living room color palette for those not keeping up with the conversation). Also, it's smaller than the driftwood mirror, which in our Wee House, we like to call right-sizing.

Meant to be?

I had to ask how much the mirror was.  I was just scouting.  Sourcing, really.... for when the front room was done.  But the entire store was 10% off! And with the discount, the mirror was $60! What a deal!

Unpaid store plug: Urban Elements has all sorts of Very Reasonable, Very Chic pieces. Alright, I'll stop with the flattery... but it is so true!  It's one of my go-to stores.  I also wasn’t surprised at all to see that the discounted club chair had a big ole “SOLD” sign on it… you gotta snap steals like that up!

And so, though the front room is not yet fully done, I have begun to deck the halls walls. ‘Tis the Season.  Right, Ryan?

(After I break the news in person, pictures to follow...)